The penultimate round of play testing was on Friday. It included all new testers including a mix of players who had never played a CCG before and players who had done the tourney circuit with Magic. Nice way to shake things up, I thought. The changes added at the 11th hour tested out beautifully and enthusiasm for the game was unbelievable. There’s that saying, “The excitement was palpable.” I never understood before what that meant. Now I do. We have players come in utterly uninterested in the game and walk out in character, obsessed, entranced. The shake-and-bake of religion, passion, battle, strategy seems to work with everyone, bar none, with no exception because of a person’s own religious background, race, gaming attitude or experience, etc. This is amazing to me.
I know that play testing is primarily a way to test the system itself. So it should be Jennifer who is so nervous, you know? It’s her math skills, her operating system, that players are so actively trying to poke holes in. In most cases they don’t even know that the auburn haired woman standing in the room is the creator of the OS. She watches with hawk eyes. Flawless, Jennifer. It’s flawless.
But for me, the players are testing something else. The story. The world. The atmosphere of the game. Why play just to play? I want people to play because they want the Grail. They want that victory, even if it is an “imaginary” one. Because it isn’t imaginary when you allow yourself to be immersed. It feels real and alive. I want to see non-believers—be they atheists or non-gamers—falling for Mardi Gras. Not because I want the royalty, but because I want to know that the idea captivates. If they’re not won over by the CCG, do they look to the novels? It’s the universe of Mardi Gras that I’m living in right now in all its incarnations.
I’m not talking about market share, you know? I’m talking about, I’ve got this great idea, and other people are adding to it. And it’s growing. Don’t you want to hear about it? Don’t you want to know... everything... about it? I do. Come with me.
Unlike other CCGs, you can’t just quick-quick pick up a stack of MG3K cards and start playing. You have to set the board. Yes, there will be preset, preprinted boards in the near future, but they don’t have the same appeal to me. Setting the MG3K board takes time because, during that time, players are building the atmosphere in the room, between the two (or more) of them, and setting the feeling for the entire game. Win the game in three moves or thirty moves, the way you set the board determines how aggressive or passive the game play is. I have never seen anyone play the game who doesn’t role play and posture in character. The level of “smack talking” is more literate than I’ve ever heard and often flipping hilarious. And it all begins as players set the board.
Not to get too deep, you know, but isn’t that just like life? The way you set your board influences everything that follows. Terrapyres play for duty and dedication. Celestials play for domination and to stop destruction. They both play for survival.
Why do you play?
E.J.
